Brian Andreas - Hall of Whispers

Hall of Whispers

Andreas set out to ask people to share stories about their experience of being alive, using the Internet of the early 1990s. Of this experiment, he wrote:

"Hall of Whispers takes its name from an ancient Babylonian myth of a specially constructed room in one of the ziggurats (stepped pyramids), in which the walls were so highly polished that a whisper would stay alive forever. I have an image of the electronic networks whispering ceaselessly with the voices of our times.

"The form of the project is deceptively simple . . . to create a situation . . . where we could join each other around a technological campfire . . . to create a virtual community using an ancient fundamental of community-making: shared stories . . . a council model for understanding our world . . . that it is in the sharing that greater wisdom evolves. Finally, in a turbulent world, it is easy to lose sight of the small beauties and moments of grace that occur constantly around us. I wanted Hall of Whispers to give voice to that side of ourselves that recognizes that this is as much a time of renewal as it is a time of decay."

Using the nascent Internet as well as fax, phone and standard mail, Andreas ultimately gathered more than 4,000 stories from around the world. At the time, Andreas was living with his wife and two young sons in Berkeley, and was focusing artistically on stone sculpting. "I had lots of white, black and beige around but no color." Finally, his wife is reported to have told him, "Please don't talk to me again until you have some color."